The Summer Land — Sue Perry

1891. A runaway boy happens upon a young girl, all on her own with mysterious powers. She needs to learn to live safely around people and he needs to hide from his past. He brings her to Summerland, CA, a brand new town, a spiritualist colony attracting many kinds of seekers, including psychic investigators, oil speculators, the recently deceased, and these two stray children in need of a family.The History of this NovelThe 19th century saw widespread interest in spiritualism. Family members yearned to communicate with dead loved ones and hired mediums to serve as go–betweens. Intellectuals like French astronomer Camille Flammarion sought evidence to prove the existence of a spirit world, which some called the Summer Land. Meanwhile, in Sweden, the painter Hilma af Klint would soon be receiving artistic direction during séances.Spiritualist colonies sprang up around the United States, and entrepreneur Henry Lafayette Williams established the town of Summerland, California as one. To join Summerland's colony, spiritual seekers came from all over – right about the time that the locals discovered oil.Here, then, is a work of imagination built on historical foundation. Settings and incidents in this novel – plus some characters and dialog – got their starts in the 1800s and this novel takes great care to respect the factual. Nonetheless it is fiction.